Grants and Contracts Details
Description
The overall objective of this proposal is to understand how realistic strategies for incorporating
alternative foods into wheat fields affect the intraguild (IG) interactions of omnivorous and
carnivorous predators and their efficacy as biological control agents. Cereal aphids are a primary
pest of wheat throughout much of the world. Naturally occurring predator communities consume
large quantities of cereal aphids in wheat, and are partitioned into aphid specialists and omnivores.
Within wheat fields, the relative abilities of omnivorous and carnivorous predators to reduce cereal
aphids depend heavily on the availability, distribution and type of alternative foods (alternative prey,
sugar, and pollen), and on the intensity and direction of IG predation events within this community.
A series of eight synergistic experiments, carefully crafted to accomplish objectives while
accounting for regional production practices, will be conducted to explore how cover crops (US,
where large fields preclude effective use of field margins) and field margins (IS, where cover crops
are not feasible) as sources of alternative foods affect the IG interactions of predators and their
efficacy as biological control agents. These objectives are: 1. Determine the mechanisms whereby
the availability of alternative prey and plant-provided resources affect pest suppression by
omnivorous and carnivorous generalist predators; 2. Characterize the intensity of IG? within
generalist predator communities of wheat systems and assess the impact of these interactions on
cereal aphid predation; and 3. Evaluate how spatial patterns in the availability of non-prey
resources and IG? affect predation on cereal aphids by generalist predator communities. To
accomplish these goals, novel tools, including molecular and biochemical gut content analysis and
geospatial analysis, will be coupled with traditional techniques used to monitor and manipulate
insect populations and predator efficacy. Our approach will manipulate key alternative foods and IG
prey to determine how these individual interactions contribute to the ability of predators to suppress
cereal aphids within systems where cover crop and field margin management strategies are
evaluated in production scale plots. Using these strategies, the proposed project will not only
provide cost-effective and realistic solutions for pest management issues faced by IS and US
producers, but also will provide a better understanding of how spatial dispersion, IG predation, and
the availability of alternative foods contribute to biological control by omnivores and carnivores
within agroecosystems. By reducing the reliance of wheat producers on insecticides, this proposal
will address the BARD priorities of increasing the efficiency of agricultural production and
protecting plants against biotic sources of stress in an environmentally friendly and sustainable
manner.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 10/1/10 → 5/31/14 |
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